1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gloves and more particularly concerns disposable gloves for medical uses, prevention of disease transfer and the like.
2. Description of Related Information
Disposable gloves have been used extensively by doctors, nurses, hospital employees and laboratory technicians for many years. These gloves are used for surgical procedures, medical examinations, treating patients having contagious diseases, blood drawing, testing and transfusions, and numerous other surgical, examination, medical and laboratory procedures. Due to the increased concern regarding diseases which may be transferred by contact from person to person, such as AIDS, gloves of this type are now being used by dentists, police officers, firefighting personnel, beauticians and even highway toll booth attendants.
Disposable gloves have been traditionally made of rubber material such as latex and thermoplastic materials such as vinyl. Latex gloves have been traditionally preferred by surgeons because of their high degree of elasticity which makes them more suitable for prolonged surgical procedures. Plastic gloves have traditionally been lower cost and well suited for routine examinations and many other tasks. Improvements in plastic technology are resulting in plastic gloves with physical properties similar to those of latex gloves so that it is no longer a hard and fast rule as to which type of glove material is more suitable for various procedures. However, all of the above-mentioned glove types, primarily because of their resilient properties and low thickness, have problems with respect to maintaining their position on the wrist of the wearer and folding down or rolling down during use.
A common method of making disposable gloves is by using a metal form in the shape of a human hand which during the manufacturing process is dipped with fingers facing downwardly, into a solution of material such as latex or plastisol which coats the form. The form is removed from the dip tank where it is subsequently subject to heat to promote curing or vulcanizing, or in the case of plastic, fusing into a glove which then may be stripped from the glove form. The art also teaches numerous other forming processes such as passing a heated glove form through a space containing fluidized finally divided particles of polyurethane polymer to produce a glove product as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,126 to McGary, Jr. et al.
Many of the attempts to eliminate or reduce glove roll down, as taught by the prior art, are achieved by additional steps in the glove forming process while the glove is still on the mold form. Hevner et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,624, provide a textured wrist portion to help eliminate glove roll down. Schindler, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,826, teaches a thin surgical glove provided with a colored circumferential band overlying the cuff portion to provide visual identification of the glove size and to further strengthen the cuff. The process of Schindler appears difficult to practice because the glove form must be dipped in a fingers down orientation, and then before curing, the form is partially immersed in a colored latex bath, in a fingers up orientation, wherein the desired width of band is deposited about the cuff portion. It has also been known that rolling the cuff downwardly before stripping the glove from the form will produce a stronger cuff structure which is believed to be less likely to roll down. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,987 Braisfield teaches a latex glove with an improved ring rolled cuff which comprises alternating tightly rolled segments with loosely rolled segments.
The problem of roll down is more difficult to solve with gloves made of thermoplastic materials. This is primarily due to the hand-shaped form which, like the human hand, has a circumference substantially smaller at the wrist portion than further down the form toward the fingertips. Because the molded glove is removed from the mold by stripping the glove cuff section down over the larger portion of the form, a permanent deformation of the plastic material may occur in the cuff area. On a large size glove, for example, a cuff roll molded to a diameter of two and one-half inches may be close to a permanent three inch diameter after stripping from the mold form.
After donning, a glove having a loose fit in the cuff section allows an opportunity for foreign materials to gain entrance to the glove interior thus compromising the amount of protection the glove can provide. In addition, a sloppy glove cuff may tend to fall down the wearer's wrist, reducing protection and presenting an opportunity to be inadvertently stripped from the user's hand during active use. Conversely, an overly tight cuff roll fit such as can be produced by a conventional rubber glove or rubber band inserted in the cuff roll of a plastic glove, may not be desirable either. With its high elastic memory, such a glove could not only cause difficulty in donning but provide increasingly undesirable effects to the user due to possible blood circulation restriction. A glove when worn must be such that it will not impair circulation in the wrist area because such impairment may affect the touch or tactile sense of the hand and the sensitivity of the hand to heat and cold and could possibly provoke hand and finger numbness when worn for a prolonged amount of time such as in a surgical procedure.
The prior art also teaches methods of providing a tighter cuff fit on reusable gloves such as gloves used in athletic competitions where a secure cuff fit is desirable. Typically, these sports gloves have numerous slits or openings which allow the glove to be easily placed on the user's hand and then the cuff portion is usually secured by a strap-like structure having a removable securing device such as Velcro-type fastening material. An example of sports gloves is taught in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,538 to Antonious. Gloves of this type are not suitable for medical procedures and the like because of the numerous vents and openings reguired by the design and the high cost of the securing means such as Velcro straps or belt and buckle-type straps.
Numerous solutions to the problem of loose cuffs and cuff roll-down in gloves have been taught by the prior art. However, there is still a need for a simple, straight-forward, reliable, easily fabricated disposable glove for medical use and the like having structure for removably securing the cuff portion of a disposable glove on the hand of the wearer during use without the glove being overly tight or difficult to donn properly. There is also a need for a disposable glove for medical use and the like wherein the fit in the cuff area may be adjusted to suit a wide variety of hand and wrist sizes.